Tag: endeavor

Three Things I Wish I Told You Months Ago!

Monday’s post dove into some of the common misconceptions about elite hockey development (and athletic development in general for that matter), with cameo appearances from a young Tom Brady and Sidney Crosby. In case you missed it, you can check it out here: Random Hockey Development Thoughts

Writing that post made me think about a couple other things that I probably should have told you a long time ago.

Endeavor Internships

First, and probably most time-relevant, we’re currently accepting applications for interns at Endeavor Sports Performance this summer. A few people have hopped on the forums at Hockey Strength and Conditioning (which is an awesome use of the very talented/experience audience on the site) and inquired about good hockey training internships. We have 3-4 spots available. Last year we drew interest from people ranging from local universities to Canada to Australia.

Our past interns have gotten a lot out of their experience with us. On top of being surrounded by passionate people that continually want to learn and get better (both coaches and athletes), our off-season hockey group includes a wide variety of skill (on- and off the ice). I know it’s a lot “sexier” to work with NCAA D1 and professional athletes and that’s what most interns are looking for. In truth, these experiences are great for networking (and general exposure), but probably not as good for coaching. Athletes at these levels tend to move extremely well and don’t require a lot of coaching, just some simple cuing.

In contrast, younger athletes need A LOT of help (turns out sitting on your ass for 22 hours a day isn’t great for building athleticism), and it’s the practice you get coaching these athletes that really helps you understand how to use efficient coaching techniques, change your language based on the athlete, and ultimately to become a better coach. Because we have players ranging from Tier II youth PeeWee programs to those in pursuit of permanent NHL roster-spots, you get the best of both worlds.

In addition to experience, the other two main reasons to pursue internships are to network and potentially pursue employment. Since I’ve joined Endeavor, we’ve had 6 interns. We hired 4, one went on to pursue a different career path, and another had a job lined up for immediately after his internship and is now going back to school in pursuit of his DPT. If you’re interested, go to the link below to read more information and to download the application. You can email the finished ones to me or fax them to Endeavor at (856) 269-4153.

>> Endeavor Sports Performance Internships <<

Endeavor Sports Performance Website

I’ve alluded to this in the past, but I do a lot of writing for the Endeavor site. Because we work with athletes in all sports, the writing tends to discuss sports other than hockey (although I do write about hockey too), general athleticism, and research related to performance enhancement. If you don’t work with hockey players and/or just want more of the good stuff, I highly encourage you to go over to Endeavor’s site and check out the blog:

>> Endeavor Sports Performance Blog <<

And follow us on youtube:

>> Endeavor Sports Performance YouTube Page <<

You’ll get all sorts of great stuff…like how to eat fruit, functionally:

…Never give a Canadian a camera

A few noteworthy posts to get you started:

The Truth About ACL Injury Prevention

High Quality Breakfast for Teenage Athletes

Long-Term Athletic Development: Training Youth Athletes

Strength and Conditioning Programs for Youth Athletes

Why Every Athlete Should Get Hurt…Once

USA Hockey’s ADM (American Development Model)

The more I learn about what USA Hockey is doing with their new ADM the more I support it. Since I started playing, it seems like the American development model has simply been wrong. We play way too many games, we practice too little, and most practices don’t make good use of the ice to enhance skills. There is a reason why, in general, the NHL’s most skilled players are consistently from overseas. From what I understand, Canada is similarly “backwards” in their systems, but hockey is so much more popular there that more talent seems to rise through the ranks, possibly despite the overall development structure.

This certainly isn’t to undermine the jobs that the thousands of coaches in both countries are doing, only to say that we need a better development framework so that new coaches have better plans and philosophies to draw from and so we can be more consistent in our teachings across the country. Naturally, I’m also of the opinion that off-ice training is a necessity, not a luxury, at least not for players that are serious about pursuing elite levels. USA Hockey has done an outstanding job of “righting the ship” so to speak. If you aren’t familiar with the ADM, you can read up on it here:

>> USA Hockey’s ADM <<

If you’re coaching, I urge you to look into this and do your best to begin implementing these concepts immediately. On an international level, it seems that the US has found some success because of their heart, not because they have comparable talent to their Canadia, Russian, Finnish, and Swedish competitors. I think, if coaches and parents buy into what USA Hockey is providing in the ADM, we’ll start to see the U.S. dominate internationally because of improved skill sets. Of course, if everyone takes the “what we’re doing now is fine” approach, we’ll simply continue to tread water.

It’s up to us to make a change! I’m in. Are you?

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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Random Hockey Development Thoughts

First things first. I want to personally thank you for continuing to come here to read up on various aspects of hockey development and for your help in spreading the word about this site. Last week, the site hit a milestone that a year ago I would have thought was impossible: over 10,000 visits in the previous 30 days.

If you’re involved in some aspects of fitness or business, this number is probably staggeringly low. However, for a hockey-specific training and development site with an array of content ranging from basic exercises to advanced scientific theory, I’m psyched! A year ago it was less than half that and growing extremely slowly. As I’ve said in the past, this site exists because of you. As you continue to help spread the word and communicate with me about what you want to me to write about, the site will continue to evolve into a better resource for you.

Random Thought 1: After my post last week on my Soft-Tissue Stress Overflow Theory, I got an email from a parent with a few kids that we’ve trained at Endeavor that read:

Her coach is so old school and is demanding at 12 years old that they only play soccer.  Otherwise they aren’t committed to the team. Yeah we’ll, we’re on our third kid.  Nice try but we aren’t buying it.  Hopefully your article will help the parents of the first borns not to believe that stuff and feel like their kid is going to be behind other kids or not “make it” because they haven’t given up their life to a travel team.

This example doesn’t pertain to hockey, but I think we all know there are hockey coaches out there like this. With every year that passes I gain an increasing appreciation for the importance of active recovery. Playing sports certainly plays a large part in developing the personality and characteristics of our youth. Things like courage, confidence, leadership, and teamwork are all life-skills that people develop through sports that will benefit them in other aspects of life. That said, sports should be a piece of a kid’s life, not all of it. Coaches, in all sports, need to remember that there’s more to life than playing sports.

Son. It’s time you stopped messing around with those “other sports” and really started focusing on hockey.


Random Thought 2: Last week I had a meeting with the president of a local youth hockey organization about a year-round development plan I had worked on. We had a great meeting. Luckily he and the coaches within that organization recognize and appreciate the importance of training as it pertains to developing elite level hockey players. They also know that it’s not a quick fix solution, but a long-term process. Because Endeavor is a private training facility, we get a lot of the “make my kid faster yesterday” parents. I wish more understood that short-term improvements in performance can be expected, but that shouldn’t be the goal. Especially with younger athletes, performance doesn’t matter nearly as much as instilling proper training habits and reinforcing proper movement patterns.

Random Thought 3: At this meeting, the idea of testing was brought up. I still whole-heartedly believe that doing performance testing with middle school and most high school athletes is completely senseless and it amazes me that so many people disagree. It is UNARGUABLE that athletes at this age are maturing, and at different rates. We’ve all seen PeeWee, Bantam, and Midget teams with players that look like giants AND players that look like they’re too small to be on the same ice. What do you think is going to happen if you compare the test results of someone that develops early and somewhat that develops late? The early maturer wins, every time. What is this system rewarding-rapid maturation? Even if you’re only comparing testing results within an athlete to monitor individual progress, which is a much more valid and desirable approach, it’s still impossible to rule out what proportion of gains are related to training and what is the result of natural maturation. Athletes naturally get stronger and faster as they get older. We need to remove the emphasis on testing and improve the emphasis on training.

“I don’t care how good you say this Crosby kid is. His 40 time was below our team average; I can’t take him.”


Random Thought 4: Over the last year I’ve gotten some hate email about some old posts I had on the NHL combine (NHL Combine Testing Results and NHL Combine Test Results Revisited).  I should probably write an article about this, but I haven’t made the time to do it. It’s not just the NHL combine that doesn’t make sense to me; the NFL one is just as bad. Last week Stephen Paea broke the NFL combine bench press test record by pressing 225 lbs 49 times. This is an amazing feat, but what does this test even tell us? Is it a strength test? Not if he’s doing over 8 reps. Is it an endurance test? Maybe in this case. Do any of these things even matter as it pertains to on-field performance? Not likely. Check out the top performers in NFL combine tests from the last 10 years. How many of those guys are NFL stars right now? A few, but certainly not enough to justify the “if you do well on this test than we’ll pay you lots of money” approach that the NFL has taken, a direction that youth sports is mimicking. The most important test is how players perform on the ice, NOT how strong, fast, or well-conditioned they may look off the ice.

This guy doesn’t look like he’d finish near the top of the pack for waterboys in combine testing. Yet, he’s an inevitable hall of fame quarterback. Maybe there’s more to success than just strength and speed for Mr. Brady?


That’s all for today!

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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Hockey Strength and Conditioning Review

Hopefully you’ve enjoyed “Theory Week” here at KevinNeeld.com. In case you missed them, I put up two posts discussing a new way to view an athlete’s muscle fiber make-up (Neeld Muscle Fiber Continuum Theory) and long-term soft-tissue stress accumulation as it pertains to common injuries and performance limitations (Soft-Tissue Stress Overflow Theory).

It’s also been a busy week over at HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com.

Sean Skahan added Phase 1 of his ACL Rehab training program. I’ve been reading up on ACL research this week because Endeavor has partnered with a local youth Soccer organization. As you know, ACLs plague soccer players and are often career-limiting injuries. Anything we can do from a strength and conditioning standpoint to improve the athlete’s likelihood of competing at their pre-injury level after surgery is a life changing opportunity. Timely program from Sean.

Check it out here >> ACL Rehab Phase 1 from Sean Skahan

We also added a couple videos. Darryl Nelson added videos of two Olympic Lift variations that he uses with the NTDP. He also points out that the players in one of the videos are goalies…Yes…goalies need to lift too.

Watch them here >> Olympic Lifts from the Hang Position from Darryl Nelson

Mike Potenza added a few exercises to help restore function and balance across the hip joint. In my opinion, having multiple exercises in your “toolbox” that serve a similar function is a great way to add variation in your programs (at least in the athlete’s mind) without neglecting the necessary creation of stress to certain structures/patterns. Mike shows a couple exercises using a somewhat specialized piece of equipment, but these could also be done with a slideboard and some resistance bands.

Watch them here >> Abduction and Adduction Exercises from Mike Potenza

There are also some great forum discussions that you should check out. If you’re in charge of making equipment purchases for a training facility, you’ll want to read up on the thread that’s shedding some light on the differences between the Woodway Curve and Woodyway Force.

Jim Reeves has posted some enlightening comments in response to a question from a member asking what he should do for his players to stay in good shape for a tournament they have 3 or 4 weeks after the season ends. I face a pretty similar situation in that a lot of our athletes finish the season and immediately want to prepare for tryouts. It’s a difficult thing to balance actively reversing some of the negative adaptations of the season while also continuing to prepare them for a hockey-related assessment.

Lastly, Mike Potenza started a thread on an interesting assessment designed to assess neural fatigue in athletes. This piqued my interest because of my background in exercise neuroscience and because I had no idea such a concept existed. I’ll be interested to read more about this in the future and look into it for our guys here.

Enjoy your weekend!

Click Here for the best in Hockey Strength and Conditioning

To your continued success,

Kevin Neeld

P.S. Try HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com for 7 days for only $1! It’ll be the best dollar you’ve ever spent.

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Modern Strength Coach

Happy Groundhog Day! Hopefully Bill Murray won’t see his shadow so we stop getting dumped on with all this snow!

For whatever reason, my ’99 Saturn is pretty good in the snow. Although, if you looked at it, you’d probably be wondering what is holding it all together. Last week on my drive back home from Endeavor, I stopped on the side of the road to help out a van that had swung off the road into a ditch. As I approached, I saw that there were two guys trying to push it up the small bank as another hit the gas. I hopped in behind the van on the left side to help push. About 4 seconds later, the van hit an icy patch, slid a few inches to the right, and I got blasted in the face with mud from the back tire. The next 15 minutes was filled with more of the same, but eventually we were able to push it out. The moral of the story is twofold

  1. If you see someone stuck on the side of the road, do what you can to help. Not everyone is okay on their own and most people don’t want to shell out the hundreds of dollars to be pulled a few feet by a tow truck.
  2. When abiding by “1”, opt to push in the middle…it’s much cleaner.

Over the last couple weeks I’ve been told on multiple occasions that I look like “that guy from Modern Family.”

What?! I’m not a red-head. I’m not gay! (Not that theres anything wrong with that)

The concept of the show highlights, as the title alludes to, the structure of the modern family in America. Having heard this comparison for the 3rd time in a few weeks and having just re-listened to Alwyn Cosgrove and Mike Boyle’s State of the Industry got me thinking about the structure of the “modern strength coach.”

In the development of a strength and conditioning professional, the commonly assumed path seems to be:

  1. Get a degree
  2. Get a certification
  3. Get a job

This was probably a great route when the profession first came to fruition, but now that’s only a piece of the puzzle. Because the field is so young, information is changing constantly. As a result, there are few (if any) academic programs that provide an adequate educational background, as a lot of the information in textbooks is overly narrow-focused or outdated. Similarly, I don’t think there’s a great single certification out there. While the CSCS is still the gold standard for people involved in training athletes (hopefully this is changing), I know quite a few CSCS certified people that I wouldn’t let train my dog.

This isn’t to say that an academic background and certification aren’t part of the equation, only that they are limited in their ability to continually prepare an individual for the requirements of this profession. In other words, these things are just the first step in a never-ending journey of continuous education. A “modern strength coach” needs to be well-versed in recognizing proper movement and movement impairments. They need to be able to quickly teach and cue exercise technique, using varying language to most effectively convey this information to specific individuals. They need to have sufficient knowledge and professionalism to communicate with sports medicine professionals of other specialties, including manual therapy, physical therapy, and orthopedics. Similarly, they need to build a referral network of these professionals to best serve their clients. They need to know how to motivate their clients, when to be a coach, and when to be a friend, and how to build a success-oriented atmosphere.

StrengthCoach.com: Go here to stand on the shoulders of giants!

All of this stems from a foundational in-depth understanding of functional anatomy, the neuromuscular system, and  biomechanics, coupled with a sound comprehension of strength and conditioning methodology and programming, and finally, with countless hours of experience. This is certainly no easy task, which is why the drop-out rate in our profession is so high. So how do you stay on top of everything to keep up with modern changes? I think Mike Boyle said it best in his “State of the Industry” talk:

“Watch, read, and attend.”

This means watch as many DVDs as you can, read as many books as you can, and attend as many seminars as you can. I’d also add in to observe as many other professionals as possible, seek out and learn from great mentors, and surround yourself with as many like-minded people as possible.

I’ve been fortunate to learn from some of the best. I’m permanently indebted to Mike Boyle (who has been training athletes for longer than I’ve been alive) and Eric Cressey for all the guidance they’ve provided me over the last few years, and am incredibly thankful to have other mentors like Chris Boyko, Brijesh Patel, Sean Skahan, Mike Potenza, and most recently Charlie Weingroff to help guide me along the way. Nothing I’ve done in the past or plan to do in the future would be possible without those guys. The collective wisdom of this group is astronomical.

One slice a day keeps the ego away

Regardless of what you do, it’s likely you’ll have more people telling you why you can’t or shouldn’t than telling you why you can or should. Surrounding yourself with like-minded people is key for your development, and for your sanity. Doing things on your own is tough. When I first started at Endeavor, the rest of the training staff was pretty much gutted, leaving me on my own. As I’ve slowly rebuilt a staff I can trust, I continue to get the same feedback from them, that they love being here because everyone is so passionate about the field. In truth, I’m lucky to have them around. Being surrounded by passionate people helps keep you motivated; it also broadens the range of information you’re exposed to as everyone has different backgrounds and seeks out different information.

I’ve learned a lot in my first few years in the field, but more than anything I’ve learned that I’ll never stop learning; that’s what makes this so much fun. Mike Boyle once said “I’m not young enough to know everything.” I think there’s a profound wisdom in those words.

The modern strength coach, amongst other things, is ever growing.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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Hockey Injuries: Sports Hernia Case Study

Before jumping into today’s post, I just wanted to say a quick congratulations to several of our athletes from this off-season.

  • John Gaudreau (’93) is tied for 2nd on his team (Dubuque Fighting Saints) and tied for 3rd in the USHL for points, as a first year player!
  • Matt DiGirolamo was awarded the starting goalie position at UNH this year and is off to a great start. Check out this article: New Hampshire’s DiGirolamo a blast from the past for Umile
  • Colby Cohen played his first few games in the NHL over the last week and played quite well. Colby worked extremely hard with us at Endeavor all Summer. The gains he made are clearly helping him on the ice.
  • Eric Tangradi scored his first NHL goal a couple weeks back and looks bigger and faster on the ice than ever. great on the ice.

We’re really proud of the hard work these players have put in with us at Endeavor and also on the ice with their respective teams. Keep up the great work guys!

As you may know, I’ve spent a lot of time researching topics related to hip and lower abdominal injuries. Because injuries like hip flexor strains, groin strains, hip labral tears, and sports hernias are affecting an increasing number of players (and receiving an increasing amount of attention), I feel it’s important to do whatever I can do prevent these injuries in our players. Over the last couple years at Endeavor, we’ve pretty much eliminated hip flexor injuries altogether, and have been able to quickly restore balance in players suffering groin strains (almost always in players that refuse to take any time off the ice).

Sports hernias and labral tears can be a bit of a different scenario because surgery is an option, and one heavily pushed by most docs. This raises the debate, “Should ‘strength coaches’ be involved in these types of injuries at all or strictly leave them to surgeons/PTs?” It’s an interesting debate, but one we’ll leave for a different discussion. Over the Summer, we had a player come to us with the following situation:

  • LONG-term adductor/groin pain (several years!), in the area of the adductor longus (as expected)
  • Showed other symptoms of a sports hernia (notably painful during movements that stretch the rectus abdominis)
  • Painful during ALL movements, even jogging
  • No health insurance
  • 5 weeks to train


Goal # 1: Do everything you can to avoid this!

The reason I said we’ll leave the surgery debate for another time is because, without insurance (or shelling out $10,000 in cash), surgery wasn’t an option at all. Nor was seeing a physical therapist for that matter. Admittedly, the situationw as a little intimidating. He had 5 weeks to be symptom free AND to be ready to step on the ice for a new professional team in London, England. With that time course, there is no room for “I think this should work”; you get one shot. I spent quite a bit of time writing his program, and reached out to three incredibly bright coaches/mentors of mine: Eric Cressey, Michael Boyle, and Charlie Weingroff, all of whom provided invaluable insight into the situation.

A couple take homes were:

  • Don’t do ANYTHING that was painful (even mildly painful). In this situation, this meant NO lateral movement (including lateral squats, shuffling, slideboarding, amongst others), no reverse lunges or back leg raised split squats, and no skating!.
  • Focus on restoring balance across the hips. In this situation, this meant restoring length across the anterior hip, loosening up the glutes, and focusing most of the strength work on the posterior chain.

Compared to other off-season hockey training programs, this didn’t leave us with a ton of options. Naturally, we HAMMERED the soft-tissue work for the anterior and interior thigh compartments and also the glutes. We quickly progressed him from a foam roller to a PVC pipe, which gets a bit deeper because of it is so much denser.


PVC Pipe: An injured hockey player’s best friend.

The two areas I wanted to dive a bit deeper into are the stretching (geared towards adding length to the muscle) and the conditioning.

Stretching: Adding Sarcomeres in Series

Because one of the major focuses was to restore alignment, we used several stretches repeatedly:

  1. 1/2 Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch w/ Downward Foot Press
  2. 2-Way Rectus Femoris Stretch w/ Downward Foot Press
  3. Stability Ball Internal Rotation Stretch
  4. Prone Active Hip Internal Rotation Holds
  5. Seated Glute Stretch
  6. Med Ball Loaded “Y” Stretch

Again, the goal here was to open up the anterior hip (remove some of the anterior tilt), improve hip internal rotation, and increase his ability to extend through the thoracic spine. The “Downward Foot Press” is a strategy we used to increase the tension in the stretched muscle in order to stimulate adding actual length (sarcomeres in series) to the muscle. We also had him hold the 1/2 Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch for 5 mins on each side for the same reason. Stimulating actual muscle length is achieved through prolonged time in a stretched state and/or tension in a stretched state. After several weeks of this, he said his helps felt a lot looser, and his groin pain was starting to subside a bit.

Conditioning: How to stay in good shape when every movement hurts

How do you condition a hockey player when he can’t skate, run or slideboard, and you don’t want him to bike because of the concern of further exacerbating his already substantially shortened hip flexors? There are a couple options left, but the two that suited our purposes the best were:

  1. Forward Sled Marches
  2. Med Ball Circuits

On our sticky track, it typically takes around 25-30s to march a sled 25-yards to the end of the track. This made it pretty easy to build in an interval training component to his program. Because his body orientation while marching with the sled didn’t necessitate extreme hip flexion, he was able to perform the exercise pain free. Two wins.

Med Ball Circuits were a no brainer. High intensity, maximum velocity rotational movements are a must for off-season hockey training programs anyway. Devising a circuit to incorporate these was another great way to get some extra valuable work in while also improving his conditioning. The circuit was:

  1. Overhead Med Ball Slams: 12x
  2. Front Standing Med Ball Scoops: 10x/side
  3. Side Standing Med Ball Shot Put: 10x/side
  4. Underhand Med Ball Scoops: 12x

We’d have him perform the circuit anywhere from 3-5x, depending on the week.

At this point, you’re probably wondering what the outcome of all this was. After all, understanding these strategies is only worth your time if they worked. Last week he sent me a quick message to update me on how things are going. He said he’s been completely pain free all season (first time in years!), and he’s currently the second leading scorer on the Newcastle Vipers (EIHL).

A few important take homes from this experience:

  1. Many injuries that are typically thought to warrant surgery can be treated conservatively if done right
  2. A crucial factor in alleviating “soft-tissue” injuries is to avoid anything that irritates it
  3. EVERY PLAYER NEEDS TO TAKE TIME AWAY FROM THE ICE EVERY YEAR!
  4. Having a network of experienced professionals in your field is invaluable
  5. Studying injury risk factors can have a profound impact on your athlete’s careers. It’s worth your time.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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